Wednesday: Moving Day

We only had our hotel booked through Wednesday and we decided to stay at a hotel closer to the airport for our last few days because adding an hour of driving time to our schedule of getting to the airport just didn't sound fun.

So we found a hotel near the airport and booked two nights there. We figured since we hadn't even heard from our attorney in PA about clearing ICPC in PA that it would take at least two days before we heard anything from Utah.

A quick explanation about our wait for ICPC: The attorney in PA filed the papers in PA sometime on Friday afternoon. The offices are closed Saturday and Sunday AND, just our luck, Monday because of Columbus day. That means PA doesn't really clear us until Tuesday at the earliest, then they send our paperwork to Utah who, HOPEFULLY, clears us before Thursday because Utah offices are closed on Friday thanks to their 4-days a week work schedule. So, basically, if Utah doesn't clear us fast, we are there for another weekend. Bleh.

So here we are on Wednesday with no word from PA. We are thinking we are definitely staying the weekend. A very very discouraging thought, but what can we do about it?

Back to the events of Wednesday....

On the way to our new hotel we stopped for breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts. Did you know they sell more than just donuts?!!! And they have a drive-thru?!!! Well, they do. And they DO! So we were actually able to eat breakfast, which we had missed that morning because we were too busy packing up our room.

Here is our old room is all of it's glory.

We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit.

Our new hotel room. Has a more 'business' feel.

Caleb took a nap. This was his crib at the new hotel. The old hotel gave us a pack'n'play. This hotel gave us baby jail. Caleb didn't seem to mind.

I think Noah took a nap, but I don't remember. He was either sleeping or eating. You know how those babies are.

We just chilled in our room for a bit. Watched some food shows, like "Chopped" which I think we became addicted to in just one evening. Then we went to Babies'R'Us for some more diapers. I swear we went to that store at least 5 times during our vacation. We also went to Target a lot. Those were our "go-to" stores everytime we needed something.

On the way home we stopped at Gino's Pizza for some philly cheesesteaks. Crystal and Keith told us that's the place to go for a good cheesesteak. (FYI, you can get a cheesesteak at any pizza place.) Zack went in to get them for us while I waited in the car.

When he got back he said, "I made the classic tourist mistake. I asked for two Philly cheesesteaks and the guy just kind of looked at me and said, 'So...two cheesesteaks?'" Yeah. We're tourists.

We ate them in the car and then attempted to find an on-ramp to the freeway so we could get home. I think I'll let Zack write a special blog post entirely dedicated to the freeway system in Pennsylvania. There is just not enough room here. Suffice it to say, it is a screwy system and it took us a while to finally get on the freeway. Memo to Philadelphia: Signs that actually take you to the correct place would be a good addition to your city.

When we got back to our hotel Zack went to go heat something up in the microwave (There was one microwave per floor. Luckily we were just a few doors down from it, seeing as we had to heat up baby food and stuff.) when his phone rang. I answered it and it was Lorraine from Act of Love. I think her words went something like, "Carrie. You can go home!"

.........

...what?....

We can go home? But we hadn't even heard from PA about clearing ICPC...

Well, as it turns out, PA overnighted our paperwork to Utah Tuesday night who received it that morning who cleared us that afternoon. Can I tell you how much I love Utah's ICPC office? We've had two adoptions and both times they have cleared us in one day. Thank you fast workers! I guess the guy in charge of our case on PA was out of the office and never told our attorney that we'd been cleared, so that's why we hadn't heard anything. So yea! We can go home!

But wait. We had our hotel room until Friday morning. Non-refundable. So, we had two choices. We could just go home the next morning and pay for a day we weren't using, or we could stay one more day, actually see some things in Philadelphia, and go home Friday. Either way we'd be paying the same. We decided not to try and rush to pack everything for a flight the next morning.

Up next: The exciting conclusion of our stay in PA or, The day it rained.

I Shall Call This Post....Tuesday

Tuesday was our last day in Chester County as we were leaving the next day for a hotel closer to the airport. We decided to visit Hershey. Our days in the hotel were pretty much the same by this time: Sleep until 9:00ish, eat breakfast and such. Caleb goes down for a nap a few hours later, we get ready for the day, all the while feeding and taking care of Noah. By the time we are up and dressed and ready to go anywhere it is about 1:00 in the afternoon. The drive to Hershey is about an hour and a half. We drove through Amish country to get there. For those of you who are wondering, Amish country does have a McDonald's so we were able to get our daily fruit smoothies.

When we got to Hershey it was about 4:00 and everything closes at 5:00. That's been the norm for every place we've visited in PA, so we were expecting it. We weren't really there to sight see everything we could. We were just wasting time until we could go home. Plus, with two little kids, you can only last one hour anyway.

After feeding Noah and changing diapers (it really makes it easy to change a baby's diaper in your lap when they are only 19 inches long, btw) we were ready to take the tour of the "chocolate factory"! Why the quotes? Because it was not a factory. It was just a ride depicting a factory.

Behold! Pictures!

Chocolate World! Where you can buy the same chocolate you get in stores for double the price!

I am excited to see the cow behinds. Truly I am!

It looks as though Zack has on his cynical face, even though he wasn't the cynical one. I was the one asking throughout the "tour", "Where is the part where they add the wax? I don't see the part where they add the wax." Caleb just looks like we are about to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Do you feel his pain? Mike? Danny?

Maybe he was just concerned because we were about to go past the singing cows. Is it just me or do they look like inmates?

After exploring the grossly overpriced candy in the gift shop we drove home amidst the constant moaning of our 1 year old (he wasn't in pain or anything, it's just a thing he does when he's tired) and the crying/screaming of our newborn. Even the peace of Amish country couldn't soothe them. When we pulled up to the hotel I believe my words were, "You get the boy, I'll get the baby...see you on the other side." On the other side I think we had dinner at some point and then put the kids to bed. Can we go home yet?

Sunday and Monday: Sightseeing Days

The nice thing about belonging to the LDS church is that you can find a meetinghouse and go to church practically anywhere in the world. It's always fun to attend church in another part of the world. Everyone is friendly, the spirit feels the same and the feeling of one-ness is always there. Pennsylvania was no exception. The only difference was that the views from their meetinghouse were a lot different than the view from ours:



After church we hung out at the hotel. Caleb has been practicing his walking. I think he's determined to be walking on his own by the time we get home.

(


He's also been working on his Touchdowns!




Today, Monday, we had another doctor appointment for Caleb. He weighed in at 6 lbs 6 oz. 3 days ago he was 5 lbs 14 oz, so we're happy to see that he is doing so well. While we were there we had the doctor's office copy all of Noah's medical files for us to take to our pediatrician when we get home. (They have access to the hospital files, too, so we were able to get them all.) While we were waiting Caleb started to get a little restless. A nurse came out and gave him a few balls to play with and keep. 2 other nurses came out at different times to let us know the progress of getting the files and to let us know they were doing their best to be fast. Everyone was super nice.


After Caleb took a nap and Noah ate, we headed over to Valley Forge National Park.


After a quick stop at the Visitor's Center to peruse the gift shop and watch a short movie, we spent the rest of the time driving around on the self-guided tour of the area. We saw George Washington's headquarters and even got to see his room set up just like it was when he lived there. Caleb is a fan.

Then we saw where George Washington's personal guards, or "life guards" camped. Caleb was more interested in his leaf.
Valley Forge is a big hill and the views were amazing. This statue isn't of George Washington, but some guy named Von-something or other. But it looks like Washington from the back. So let's just pretend it's him.

There are cabin replicas here and there, but most of the area is just pretty landscape, so you have to use your imagination and picture what it must have been like 200 years ago.

We made sure to visit the "Patriots of African Descent" monument for our boys.

There are a lot of bike paths, footpaths, and walkways in the park and it looks like a popular place for people to jog and bike. Someday we'll come back and take our kids on a bike-tour of the park.

The whole time we've been here in PA we've been on the lookout for an ice cream place. Can you believe they've been hard to find? What's wrong with you Pennsylvanians? Don't you like cold, creamy goodness? Well, on the way to the park we passed an ice cream place and vowed to stop there on the way home. When we got there we discovered that a lot of Pennsylvanians actually like ice cream.

And now, here are a few random shots of just hanging out at our home away from home.

Noah likes to pose when he sleeps.

These are everywhere out here. They're gas stations. I'm not sure why they're called the WaWa, but I like it. It's my personal goal to find as many as I can. So far I've seen 6.

We think Noah is just adorable. He's just a pretty baby. But sometimes he looks kind of frog-like to me with his big eyes and his long, thin appendages.

Well, at least I thought it was a frog he looked like. Turns out it was something else...

Maybe we should have named him Elllllllliot...

Friday and Saturday - First Family of Four Days

Thursday night Noah did not sleep nearly as well as he did Wednesday night. Whether true or not, I like to think of it as his way of mourning. I imagine his birthmother didn't sleep very well that night either, and maybe there is some sort of connection there. The only way he would be consoled was to be held, and we were happy to oblige. After all, you can't spoil a child in their first week, can you?

Friday morning we took Noah to his pediatrician for his 48 hour checkup. Noah is still under 6 pounds, which looks sooooo tiny next to Caleb, but the Dr said that everything looked just fine. The most entertaining part of the visit was when Noah decided to make the Dr change his diaper 3 times in less than a minute. I've heard people say that their baby likes to do his/her business in a fresh diaper, well Noah prefers it just as soon as the fresh diaper (or wipe, or....air) touches him. We will have one more Dr visit prior to heading home, probably on Monday.

The excellent PA attorney worked hard and got the ICPC (Interstate Compact to prevent child trafficking) paperwork completed and submitted by about lunchtime on Friday. He also went ahead and submitted a copy to Utah to try to get things moving. This was extremely important to us since it gives us our best chance of coming home next week. Ideally, PA would have approved the paperwork on Friday, but realistically not until Tuesday (Monday being Columbus Day) or worst case Wednesday. When we were in Florida, Utah ICPC did an amazing job and got the paperwork approved the same day they received it, but we can't count on that...but we can still hope :o)

It has been fun taking a couple boys around when we go out. Carrie usually takes the baby and I usually the take the boy, who is just a ton a fun to play with and take places.

On Saturday we officially began our vacation. Not all families decide to go on vacation when they have a 5 day old, but we don't have too much of a choice in the matter, so we want to make the most of it. We want to get to know the state where our son was born! We have plans to visit the Liberty Bell, Valley Forge, and maybe swing over to Hershey PA. We'd head north to some popular church history sites if they weren't on the other side of the border, and therefore illegal for us. If any you have any suggestions for good places to visit, let us know!

So Saturday we decided to go to Longwood Gardens, and we think it was an excellent choice.

Longwood Gardens is several acres of horticultural fantasy world. They have a bunch of cool sculptures in the topiary garden, amazing flowers in the flower walk, all types of cool plants in the gigantic observatory, and some areas we didn't even have time to go see, like the children's play areas, birdhouse, and the fountain garden.

Flower Walk

Topiary Garden

Squirrel!

Observatory

Outside the Observatory

Taking a feeding break inside the Observatory.

Noah loved all of the gorgeous gardens...

Our favorite section though, was the Forest Walk. It was just a simple loop, maybe 1/2 mile or so, of natural raw Pennsylvania, and it was gorgeous. I've never been to the sacred grove, but Carrie confirmed that this is a lot like the look of the sacred grove. A beautiful canopy of Tulip Trees along with a lot of other vegetation and animals.

We even saw some deer!

We did the same thing when we were in Florida. It was cool see in both places, and both times it was nice to get out and go for a walk. The boys did really well. Several people were in awe of our adorable boy and our sweet little 5 day old, but they were even more amazed at how Carrie had recovered so quickly! Imagine their surprise when they found out that she just found out she was pregnant with him 5 days ago ;o) Don't worry, we recognize that adoption has its perks :o)

I'm a tad embarrassed to say this, but on Saturday we also decided to play some McDonald's Monopoly again. (Carrie interrupting here. I'm not ashamed. We are totally going to WIN!!!)Actually, it has been kind of fun, and the thought of winning something, when we have to eat something anyway, adds an element of fun. We're one short on several areas (gasp with surprise with me everyone!) so if any of you have Mediterranean, Vermont, Virginia, Kentucky, Short Line Railroad, or Boardwalk, well you be sure to let us know :o)

Thursday - Relinquishment Day

Our first day as a four member (earthly) family. Things went pretty well. The boys (that's pretty fun to say!) slept well, ate well, and even traveled well. With two kids we were both more involved to get them ready and such, but it because clear why people say that having three is such a major change!

PA law says that birthparents cannot sign relinquishment papers until 72 hours after the birth of a baby. So even though we had temporary custody of Noah, his birthparents did not have to sign anything and could have asked for him back anytime. While we weren't terribly concerned about it after we met Noah's amazing birthparent's, there's always a little bit of worry.

This afternoon we all met in the lobby of the hotel our agency workers were staying in. By the time we got there the relinquishment papers had all been signed. We met the attorney who took the relinquishments and who is doing all of our ICPC paperwork. He's a Jewish attorney...and that's about all he had in common with the attorney we had for Caleb's adoption. In other words, he is a really nice guy and has been nice to work with. We also met his wife who was very nice and informed us that the story of Noah from the Bible is being read this weekend in every synagogue around the world. She loved that we named him Noah and she was really tickled when she found out we had a Caleb and a Joshua.

The relinquishment went pretty well. The best two things about it were that Noah's birthmom gave us three little blankets that she made for Noah, along with a stuffed animal, a cute onesie, and two pictures. One was Noah's ultrasound picture, which was really cool to get. The other was a picture of Noah's two biological sisters. Which brings me to the second best thing; We got to meet his biological sisters, who are 3 and almost 1, and are absolutely adorable.

After the papers were all signed, we went out to dinner. It was a nice dinner. We talked about a pretty wide variety of things. When the time came that Noah's birthparents needed to leave, the emotion of adoption was not absent. For the first time, we saw Noah's birthmom get emotional. She always tries so hard to put on a strong face. Our heart went out to her, and her selflessness was evident. While I know it was an emotional day, and I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for her to leave, her emotions came because of how much she loves little Noah, and he's lucky to have that love. After they left it was just the four of us and the Agency workers. We had a nice long chat about the details of this particular adoption, which was not a normal one. By that I am referring to Noah's exceptional birthparents. We talked about how evident God's hand was in this adoption, and we are so grateful for that.

Wednesday - Pickup Day

I'll try to be less long-winded and more picture-posting today. If all goes well, I'll even finish typing this today and avoid any confusion about what "tomorrow" and "today" mean.


So the plan yesterday was to pick up baby Noah this morning. Crystal had it all planned out and had everything taken care of so we could all leave the hospital together. We got to the hospital at 10am, but our agency workers weren't there yet because TomTom had taken them on a wild-goose-chase. We took the opportunity to hit the gift shop for a flower for Crystal as well as a couple matching teddy bears. One for Crystal and Keith and one for Noah.


Great story Zack, but where's a picture of this baby we keep hearing about?

"Where's the baby?"

Okay, okay, just a second. We want to tell more of the story first. You see, we weren't able to pick up Noah yet. Due to a Doctor error in some paperwork, they weren't able to discharge Noah until the afternoon. Crystal was her usual optimistic unflappable self, but in her eyes we could see disappointment that things didn't go as planned even though she'd done everything right.

Caleb, on the other hand was not his usual unflappable self. He actually started crying. Yeah. He'd pause briefly if we sang to him, but he wasn't feeling very happy (presumably about not getting to take his brother home yet.)

We DID however remember the camera this time.

(Carrie here now. Zack is taking a blogging break to spend time with his boyz and watch some AFV.)

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, pictures...

Here we are outside the hospital. Yea US!!!

Oh, you didn't want to see pictures of us? FINE.

Introducing Evans #4!

"Loved much you are. Yes."
Lest you think all the attention was on Noah, Caleb was a hit at the nurses station.

After visiting with Crystal and Keith and spending some time with little Noah, we left to let Caleb take a nap and also to let us eat breakfast/lunch. Eating has been pretty low on the priority list the past few days and we were hungry. Since Caleb fell asleep about 3 minutes after we put him in the car, we ate McDonald's in the car. After we almost won $1,000,000 in McDonald's Monopoly, Zack ran into Target (Not with his car, sillies! I mean he went inside!) for some newborn diapers and a newborn outfit that matched what Caleb was wearing. (Yes. apparently we are going to be that family.) Then we went back to the hospital in the afternoon to take our baby home.

First we got to dress him in his matching brother outfit. Green and blue!

Then we got him in his car seat. I think he's a fan of the monkeys.

Noah and his teddy bear friend. The nurse put an "Eagles" hat on him because she's a big fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. I, uh, didn't know the Eagles were pink and gray...

Family of four is WAY better than family of three!!! We had to walk out of the hospital with the agency workers because, technically, they have custody of our little guy. Then we signed a paper saying that if we leave the state of Pennsylvania without their permission we would be committing a crime. (But New Jersey is so cloooose...) Then we headed back to our hotel!

"Being a big brother is going to be awesome!"

We got back to our hotel and just settled in. Caleb took a much needed nap and Noah got to eat.

Seriously. How adorable is this? HOW!?

Dad and the Boyz.

A nice shot of him awake! We love having our little guy "home" with us. Having him in our family feels so right. It's almost ridiculous how right it feels. We sure do love him.

Matching football jammies!And in case you are curious about how Caleb feels about him...

We kid! I mean, Our kid!

Sooooo, this blog seems to be the perfect place for public confessions.
If you don't like reading, then I'll jump right to the chase. Carrie and I are currently in Pennsylvania. Tomorrow morning we are picking up our adorable baby boy (Not Ethiopia, not Caleb's birthsibling).
The rest of this is more of a journal entry for me, but if you'd like to read along go ahead, but I'm starting from the beginning. You've been warned.
About a month and a half ago, Carrie and I were weeding in the backyard and starting talking about our family and how things don't always turn out how you expect, but you realize you are happy. We talked about how cool the sequence of events was that led us to Caleb, and how excited we were to adopt a baby from Ethiopia. We started talking about what our plans were for our "post-Ethiopia" family. As we began that topic we both got the feeling that our "post-Ethiopia" family was supposed to more of a "pre-Ethiopia" family. We felt like we were supposed to get a baby, and fast.
So we began researching a few different agencies and getting details about timing and costs and such. We analyzed our finances and figured out a way that we could swing it thanks to the adoption tax credit. We decided to go with the agency that "assisted" with Caleb's adoption (An agency assist basically means they bring a family and another agency together). The advantages were that we would only have to redo about half of the paperwork. Of the paperwork, only one document required us to tell anyone what we were doing, so Carrie and I decided we wanted this baby to be a surprise.

Uhm. Surprise!

So we finished the paperwork and started receiving situations. The way the agency works is that they find birthmothers looking to make an adoption plan for their baby. They get the paperwork in order and then send a series of documents to adoptive couples. We then review the situation, and let them know if we do or do not want our profile sent to that birthmom. The birthmom looks over the profiles and decides who the lucky couple will be while the adoptive couple tries to stay sane. I think we received about 9 or 10 situations over the past 1.5 months. Of those, we passed on all but three, primarily because of the timing. The babies were due in December or January, even though that was WAY faster than an adoption can be reasonably expected. We of course consider each one, but they just didn't feel right. There was a definite urgency in the feeling about this adoption for us. 2 of the situations we had our profiles sent and then went through the agonizing wait only to find out that another family was selected. Up until a week ago we slowly watched all of the August, September, and October situations disappear in spite of a surprise September situation that didn't pan out.

I'll admit that exactly one week ago I had a sinking-Peter moment. Remember when Peter was walking on the water and started to doubt? He was WALKING ON WATER when he BEGAN to doubt! It seems crazy, but he got distracted by the storm around him and as he doubted he began to sink. It has been amazing to see how Heavenly Father has led this entire adoption process, yet I started to question, because I thought he wanted us to get a baby soon, and we'd done all we could, and there were no situations left before December. Why did he tell us it had to be fast? (Oh NO! That's a pretty big storm out there!).

I kid you not, the very next day (Wed the 29th) after our weekly spouse lunch day, Carrie dropped me off back at work and took Caleb home. When I got to my computer I saw that there was a new situation we'd been sent.

And the baby was due October 19th!

I was immediately more excited than I had been for any situation we'd received. It was torture wating for Carrie to get home, but within an hour we had reveiwed and accepted the situation (Previous situations had taken us at least a day or two), and we were SO excited!

I was sure this was going to be our little baby. I'll actually spare some details here because they'll come up later, but it just seemed too perfect for us. A few times Carrie and I would start to think rationally about how crushing it would be to find out we weren't chosen, since we were so sure we WOULD be chosen. But everytime I started thinking that way, I didn't feel worried, which was so very different from the others. There really was a sort of a night and day difference, that was really peaceful to feel.

We waited over the weekend and learned valuable lessons like the Peter lesson and other conference related lessons, and went into Monday confident in the Lord's timing for us, no matter when we got the call, and no matter what the answer was.

Late Monday morning (yesterday) we got the call.

We were told there was "double good news" which made us only slightly nervous as we pondered the possiblility of twins or something.

The first good news was that we had been chosen for this baby. YEA YEA YEA!

The second good news was that the baby was born about two hours prior and was healthy. YEA YEA YEA!

So he (we'll most likely name him Noah Zackery) is here! Caleb is a big brother! Noah was 6 pounds 7 ounces and 19" long. He was about 2 weeks early, and he was born at 10:26am.

Soooooo, Carrie and I wereSOOOO excited, and we were also getting everything ready since, you know, we needed to fly to Pennsylvania ASAP :o)
That's right, about 18 hours after finding out we were selected, we would be on a plane with Caleb to go get a little tiny newborn! We won't be able to get him officially until Thursday, so I guess there is still some risk, and then we will have to wait for all of the ICPC documentation to go through, just like we did with Caleb in Florida, but we are hoping that we'll be flying back on about Wed. the 13th with our two little boys :o)

Noah's birthmom is Caucasion and his birthfather is African American, and they are actually engaged, but just don't feel like this baby belongs to them. They really seem to be a pretty interesting couple and we were anxious to meet them.

So we basically spent Monday finding and booking flight, car and hotel, we got the puppies a nice place to stay, we arranged for mail pickup as well as travel to and from the airport, we've drove all over notifying most of our immediate family about our exciting news, Carrie went through clothes and got all of the necessities for us and both kids, we went to store to buy some things we needed included more travel friendly food for Caleb, we arranged for substitues for our church lessons and Scout activities, we checked into our flight online and printed off maps and directions, I arranged for all of my work and e-mails and assignments to be taken care of, we signed documents, discussed various issues with the agency, wired our savings away, we packed for the three of us, and eventually laid down to get a few hours of sleep before our flight.

We left Salt Lake early Tuesday morning with continued help from the family members who we'd just informed, but who were gracious enough to help in so many ways.

The flights went better than we could have expected. Let me just say that Caleb was AWESOME yesterday. He was happy, he didn't fuss or cry once, he took a nap on my chest for over an hour, and he was awake at one point for over 9 hours and he was still being good for us. What a little man.

We landed in Philadelphia at 4:45 PA time and went to get our rental car. As we were loading the car up we got a call from the two agency workers who also flew to PA yesterday. They said that the birthparents (Crystal and Keith) were at the hospital right now and had to leave fairly soon, so could we go straight to the hospital.

We, of course, told them no WAY. We had just finished 9 hours of travel, Caleb needed his second nap, we hadn't eaten anything but a quick bite during our short layover in Phoenix, and we definitely needed to freshen up and put on some nicer clothes.

We, of course, did NOT tell them that. We went straight to the hospital, where it was our extreme pleasure to meet Crystal and Keith. What an amazing couple. They were so polite and thoughtful. So kind and intelligent. They were clearly very much in love and had tremendous respect for each other. They have been together for 8 years and already have 2 little girls together. They simply felt that this baby was meant for someone else, and they aren't in a financial position to give this little boy all they want for him in his life. I'm not sure there is another set of birthparents like them in the world. Noah is so incredibly lucky to have such special birthparents who absolutely adore him. They didn't name him because they didn't want us to feel any pressure. Crystal had the baby naturally, because she wanted to make sure he didn't have any drugs or anything in his system. They went above and beyond anything that could be expected because they wanted to deliver a perfect little angel to us.

Crystal, who reminds me SO much of my cousin Molly, had her precious baby brought from the nursery. She carefully and lovingly picked him up. Smiled and gave him a little hug, and handed him into my sweet wife's open arms. It was such a special moment. An unbelievable one for us. While we kicked ourseslves for somehow forgetting to bring any of our 3 cameras into the hospital, we were simoultaneously grateful that we were able to just soak in the moment and feel all of the feelings instead of trying so hard to document everything that we missed the moment.

We all took turns holding Noah and just talked. There are a lot of things we have in common with Crystal and Keith and the Spirit confirmed that this was a moment divinely set up by a loving Father in Heaven.

Noah is absolutely precious. He has dark hair and a very light complexion. He has perfect little features and even woke up for us to see into his eyes. He looks SO much like Keith that it is amazing.

We stayed at the hospital until almost 9 o'clock. Did I mention what a champ Caleb was?

We left and checked into our hotel and got Caleb some well deserved food. Then we went to TGI Friday's, which, interestingly enough, was the very first restaurant we went to with Caleb in Florida. Now it is the last restaurant we'll go to with him before picking up his baby brother :o)

There have been some events already today, but I've got to draw the line somewhere.

2uesdaynite seems like as good a place to draw the line as any. Oh, did I mention Keith plays the bass guitar and sings in a band?